                       Do I Love You?  



Do I love you? 
Do I love you? 
Do I love you? 
I can't really say. 
Part of the problem is in the meaning,
Or multitude of meanings,
And therefore lack of meaning,
Of that word "Love"
As well as the difficulty of objectively viewing my feelings.  

For one thing, "love" is said to involve
A concern for the other's welfare and happiness
Above one's own.  
But when I saw you with another 
Part of me was selfish enough
To hope it wouldn't work out
Even though the rest of me
Did all it could
Toward what you seemed to want.  

On a less lofty level I find
That my emotional outlook improves
Whenever we meet
And that any place with you
Is usually better
Than the same place without you
And the things I could find fault with
Seem less significant in you
Than they would in another.  

The lowest level of so-called "love"
Is desire for physical interaction:
That I feel strongly. 
But there should be more than that
And I think there is.  
How much more I can't say
Except that I hope it can grow with time
Into someting we can be reasonably right 
In calling "love".  


                                  -- Tom Digby
                                  Original 15:40 07/12/1970
                                  Revised  19:30 07/12/1970
                                  Entered  16:41 11/13/2002


